Page 28 of One Week Wingman

“I know it probably won’t last,” Daisy adds. “You never know who’s going to trend next week. So I figure I should take advantage of it while I can. And I don’t post about anything I wouldn’t actually do or buy myself. No tummy tea or any of that bullshit.”

I don’t even know what tummy tea is, but I am happy to hear Daisy has some standards. I keep snapping pics when a store assistant walks past and does a double-take. “Oh my god. You’re Daisy Does More! I follow you on Instagram!”

“That’s so sweet!” Daisy is all warmth and smiles.

“What are we shopping for today?” the assistant looks at her eagerly. “Can I help you find something?”

“Actually, yes,” Daisy says. “We’re looking for an anniversary present for our parents. Do you have any suggestions?”

“Let me take you over to our gift section,” the young woman says immediately. “I’m sure we’ll be able to find something great.”

She and Daisy chatter away, all across the store. I trail behind them, totally lost. I’m no luddite, but they’re clearly online on a whole other level.

Bored, I text Sebastian.‘Staying out of trouble?’

My phone pings with a reply instantly.‘I’m helping your mum with her lobelia.’

Oh dear God. I nearly have a heart attack right there in the middle of fine leather goods.

‘????!!!’

‘Lobelia is a flower.’ His reply comes. ‘Get your mind out of the gutter.’

I exhale, crisis averted. ‘My mind’s only in the gutter because it’s melted out of my ears from boredom.’

‘Shopping trip not going so well?’

‘Daisy has found her #1 fan, but we’re still striking out on the anniversary gift. That’s a baseball term btw,’ I add with a winky face.

Seb texts back an eye-roll emoji, then a picture of him with my mom in the yard. They’re both smiling together, and my mom has even loaned him her favorite straw gardening hat.

I feel that twinge of guilt again. She’s going to be so disappointed when we break up. Or rather, when I break up with Stefano. And if she ever finds out I invented the whole thing…

Somehow having a fake boyfriend is even more stressful than no boyfriend at all.

With a carfull of Daisy’s shopping—plus a fancy picnic hamper she finally found for Mom and Phil—we head home. I find Sebastian still in the garden with my mom, the two of them kneeling on her little square gardening cushions, looking like new BFFs down there in the flower beds.

“You look like you’re having fun,” I say, approaching fast. Just what have they been talking about all this time?

“Manure is a laugh a minute,” Sebastian says, greeting me with a grin.

“We’ve been talking soil,” Mom explains. “You didn’t tell me Stefano was into biodynamic farming.”

That’s because I didn’t know he was. Also, I don’t know what biodynamic farming is.

“He’s a man of many talents,” I say vaguely. Seb gets up, and then chivalrously offers his hand to help my mom up, too.

“It’s such a shame you have to go tomorrow, Stefano,” she says, looking disappointed.

“Didn’t Roxy tell you?” Seb says. “I moved some things around. I can stay all week.”

He what?

“I thought there were some important meetings you really couldn’t miss,” I tell him meaningfully, but Seb just drops a kiss on my forehead.

“What could be more important than spending time with you and your family?” he leans closer, and adds in a murmur: “We have a deal, don’t we?”

Right. Our deal.

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